Book Week should be a 'week' of great joy for me - after all this is my 'industry', my passion, my work, BUT as usual I just sigh and slightly 'die' every time I read about the dressing up and the parades and I especially rage when I read about prizes for costumes and schools who lead kids in parades through suburban streets. Heading 'down the street', as I know happens in one local school, seems pointless to me and of course perpetuates the myth that a book week dress ups or a book week parade has some connection with books and reading. That this trail of kids walking on a footpath somehow relates to kids loving reading or shows that kids are reading heaps of terrific books or that this is a celebration of Australian book award winners.
I had actually decided that this year I would work hard to ignore all the dressing up hoopla and that, unlike other years, I would not bother with yet another blog post about this topic - after all who actually reads my 'stuff' - mostly people who live in the world of kids books and probably not any decision makers such as school Principals or other school executive.
When I saw the headline you just read at the top of this post in the Sydney Morning Herald today (it is officially the first day of Book Week here in Australia) I almost skipped reading this opinion piece - in fact my first reaction was to just toss this part of the paper into the recycling.
But then my eye caught a couple of words and I realised that Jenna Guillaume had actually given this topic the right emphasis - books and reading! (note the article from the SMH is behind a paywall).
Here are a few quotes that resonated with me:
"There's no doubt that, as with many other things, the rise of social media has seen the expectations around Book Week costumes soar, with the twin thieves of joy - competition and comparison ... "
My own personal childhood experience of this in the 1960s lingers. My mum found this costume making stressful. She made me two really terrific costumes - the wall with a Humpty Dumpty toy perched on top was one - but at school I was ridiculed - not by the kids - but by some teachers!
"The point of Book Week is, of course, to put books front and centre, and the costume frenzy can sometimes cause this to get lost."
"Book week is (should be) a great opportunity to take a moment to connect with kids if you let books lead the way, rather than the costumes."
The idea that the dress up outfit is from a favourite book seems so far removed now from the actual costume choices that I seem to witness. It just becomes an easy compromise such as Where's Wally or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Harry Potter or worse just a Disney outfit from the chain store. I guarantee most kids don't even know the fairy tale character they are portraying - Snow White or Red Riding Hood let alone realise that Frozen has links with the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale The Snow Queen.
"Going to the library or your home bookshelves and combing through them with your kids, having conversations about their favourite stories and characters, is far more important than any elaborately styled outfit."
Wow! That's a great idea - go to the library, find a real book, dress up (if you must) in a costume that has real meaning to you as a reader! Book Week should be a time to acknowledgment of the importance of a school library and to highlight the importance of staffing your school library with a qualified Teacher-Librarian. A richly stocked library along with a dedicated staff member who READS BOOKS really can set kids up to become avid readers - surely that is a desirable outcome for Book Week. Make sure you tune into Behind the News (BTN) next week - there will be a segement about school libraries.
Newspapers - I do have one more important thing to say here about the MEDIA. I purchased two major Sydney newspapers today and I have been right through both publications TWICE. Alas there is no mention of the other key part of Book Week - the announcement of the winners of our Australian National Book Award - WHY NOT?
Check out my post from yesterday where you will find three books in each of six categories that have been judged as our best Australian children's books of 2026. And prior to this if you need to seek out other fabulous books back in February the Children's Book Council announced the Notable (long listed) titles for these awards so that's over 100 other books you could look for in your school or local library.
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